The Kansas State senior doesn’t bring the tantalizing Jordanesqe skills of Kansas’ Ben McLemore, or the fill-the-stat-sheet ability of Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart.

But his ability to smartly, efficiently take over the game was one key reason that Kansas State downed Oklahoma State 68-57 in the semifinals of the Phillips 66 Men’s Basketball Championship.

The Wildcats (27-6) will meet Kansas (28-5), which outlasted Iowa State, for the title Saturday.

Get ready for a championship game with the soundtrack of the “Wabash Cannonball,” a favorite of both school’s pep bands. The two teams tied for the Big 12 regular-season title with Kansas winning both head-to-head meetings.

Kansas State has never won the tournament and has reached the title game just once, losing to the Jayhawks in 2010.

“You were conference co-champions,” Weber said. “Now you get a chance to play the team that tied you for the tournament championship.”

McGruder made sure of the third meeting, scoring nine points in the first 2:45 of the second half as Kansas State built on a five-point halftime lead. He finished with 25 points, hitting eight of 14 shots and picking his spots in Weber’s motion offense.

“I just took the open shots and the lanes they gave me,” McGruder said.

Oklahoma State (24-8) was seeking its first title game appearance since 2005. The Cowboys were extended to the final seconds by Baylor in the quarterfinals and looked anything but fresh. They’re still safely in the NCAA Tournament and may be as high as a No. 4 seed.

“We saw they were tired by the end of the first half,” said Kansas State point guard Angel Rodriguez, who finished with 17 points and four assists. “The beauty of our team is we’re deep, and a lot of people can make plays for us.”

While McGruder set the tone early in the second half, the Cowboys made just two of their 13 shots.

The Cowboys got as close as eight with 1:47 to play on a 3-pointer by Le’Bryan Nash, but Rodriguez and McGruder each drilled two free throws.

Offensive space came with a price.

Nash, who came up big in the quarterfinal win over Baylor, hit the court hard on his first two field goal attempts and didn’t take another shot in the first half. He didn’t get his first field goal until 9:19 remained in the game.

Kansas State isn’t pretty or even efficient. The Wildcats simply have the ability to grind down opponents and play opportunistic offense.

“We just couldn’t get any offensive rhythm,” Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said.

Smart, the Big 12’s player of the year and the national freshman of the year from Flower Mound Marcus, led Oklahoma State with 18 points but connected on just six of 17 shots.

Neither team exactly lit it up in the first half, each shooting 32.1 percent.

Kansas State made just one of its first 11 field-goal attempts, although the Wildcats shot 50 percent in the second half.

Oklahoma State struggled without leading scorer Markel Brown, who picked up two fouls in the first three minutes and exited to the bench.

“I’m just proud of the guys,” Weber said. “This is a very, very good team we faced.”

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